control rooms


for TETRA and telephony we’re talking only 160 kbit/s. If you add CCTV streaming then obviously it ramps up. But within a control room environment, to be able to have TETRA terminated at the workstation; that workstation can be used, but also it advertises its connection for other users via P2P communications.” He explains that this removes the need for any centralized


‘ICCS switch’, and the need for centralized proprietary hardware disappears because the intelligence is in the client software. Te critical communications connect to the client, and


they convert and mix locally, using software to advertise their communications; it’s a virtual connection. “You don’t care where it’s come from. Even in neighbouring forces, you just advertise and if you’ve got


connections to them you can access their CCI ports. You’d agree which ones and you’d put limitations on them and you can have a pool within a pool – that’s all configurable by the customer. “It’s inherently resilient because there’s no single point


of failure. If the workstation dies, that workstation dies and worst case another one might lose its pooled TETRA connection momentarily. Big deal – TETRA lost, it can automatically connect to another port.” One of the key benefits to this way of doing things is


that the system will not need an expensive overhaul every 10 years. “It’s software”, Simon concludes. “You pay your maintenance and it gets updated once or twice a year and as long as you update the software, your system grows with you – it doesn’t become 10-years-old.”


“


Mission critical systems W


e’ve been around for 28 years”, says Simon Read, business development director at APD. “We major in mission critical


solutions, we don’t stray out of what we know, and we know mission critical environments. By that I mean emergency services, military, airports, trains, metro systems, right down to cash in transit; anything involving highly reliable mission critical systems.” According to Simon there are three core areas for APD. “The


first is control room systems with Cortex as our ICCS, which is unique with the distributed peer-to-peer (P2P) architecture. That offers integration to different TETRA providers, so whether it’s to the dispatcher level TETRA provider via a CCI port or via a TCS connection, but also by fixed mobile radios. We can spoof all those connections simultaneously and pull them all together and advertise them on a WAN to be able to give any client access to them, which is in more and more demand. That’s got major cost saving implications and has saved UK Police almost £2 million in just the past two years, and this figure is growing daily. “Cortex also integrates with telephony systems; 999, 101


[UK emergency numbers]. We are just working with Scotland at the moment where they have gone from eight forces down to one, and recently they launched their national 101 number with Strathclyde Police. They use our Aspire contact management system. They’ve got about 400 workstations across many different sites for contact management, and anyone who contacts that police force, by whatever means, comes up on the Aspire application. It prevents all double-keying, pops up contact history, highlights things like if somebody is a vulnerable person, if they’re a repeat caller, if they’re a victim of anti-social behaviour, if they’re calling about the same thing over and over again – it flags that up and tells the operator. It’s about resolving at first point of contact which provides a better customer experience and saves forces money. “Artemis is our third product area and focuses on driving


business benefits. There has been a significant shift within our markets to become more business orientated. APD provide the platform for customers to track people and vehicles through radios, phones and our black boxes in vehicles. We’ve been providing this service for over a decade, 7000 police vehicles in the UK use our black box, 21000 vehicles across the world.


38


Artemis adds value to our customers’ businesses by providing


a platform for significant cost savings through efficiencies. With the high fuel usages associated with fleets, Artemis provides the information to support behavioural change and drive improvements in miles per gallon, as well as promoting safer driving and further reducing insurance costs. “Artemis enables fleet managers to manage their vehicles more


effectively – tracking resources, their utilization and being able to connect to the vehicle’s on board diagnostics port to report faults live over air. Fleet managers and workshop mechanics can then manage their fleet and the servicing of vehicles using the information provided and further reduces costs. “By curbing driving style we demonstrated a saving, in the


national trials with APCO, of between nine and 13 per cent in MPG. When police forces are spending over £1 million per year in fuel, some £2 million, the Met [London’s Metropolitan Police] even more, I’m sure, then with a 10 per cent saving it can pay for itself in less than a year.” APD announced in September 2012 that Northamptonshire


Police in the UK had signed a contract to implement Artemis. At the same time, a three-year national framework agreement was awarded to APD. This allows all police forces in England and Wales to purchase Artemis through the framework without having to go through a tender process.


A Swedish Police Force control room in Stockholm


TE TRA TODAY Issue 14 2013


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